Automatic door openers applied to dwellings which consist of an intercommunication system or telephone that communicates the porch with each of the dwellings are well-known, also including a system for calling each dwelling, while each dwelling includes a pushbutton for opening the porch door. These door openers tend to include a monitor in the interior plate by which one can see the scenes occurring in the corresponding entrance hall of the building at the same time that one is listening. In this way, the people who are in the dwellings can decide whether to open the porch door after receiving a call or not.
Modules also exist of automatic door openers that reproduce an audio message pre-recorded in the factory as an automatic answer phone, after a particular event has occurred, such as an alarm going off, or the absence of the owner. Other more advanced ones also permit the capture of a digital image (photogram) in the case of the absence of the owners, which can be viewed later on the monitor of the interior plate.
On the other hand, radio-frequency circuits are also known which, after an adaptation has been made to the electronic door opener systems, perform functions such as opening the door for access to the building via a remote control or permitting the scenes occurring in the entrance hall to be viewed on the television set. These systems, in the majority of cases, use the down cable of the collective antenna of the building for introducing audiovisual signals from the entrance hall to the dwellings, in such a way that they can be reproduced by tuning the television set to a particular channel.
Other radio transmission systems are also known, such as cordless telephones and certain television signal transmitter and receiver circuits, that permit the television set to be viewed at any point in the dwelling without the need for installing cableform.
For some time now, alarm or surveillance systems have been appearing on the market that have a function for remote localization of owners in the case of their being triggered. Thanks to the appearance of high speed telephone lines, some of these systems permit the incorporation of external modules for transmitting audiovisual sequences in the case of an intrusion.
In the same way, home automation systems, or comfort systems are known that permit the device to be turned off and on, simulation of presence, energy saving, etc. The most advanced home automation systems even permit their handling via remote telephones by means of audio guided menus.
Provided with multimedia technology, videoconferencing systems between computers are well-known, used to transmit bi-directional audiovisual sequences, together with video-telephones that permit a call to be established, making the simultaneous transmission of images possible.
The recently appeared standard, called WAP (wireless application protocol), still under development, is also known, that permits us to connect with a Web page server via a mobile telephone. By means of a WAP connection, we can reproduce the contents of Web pages on the liquid crystal display of the mobile telephone, whether in a text or audiovisual context. The use of mobile telephones, provided with the WAP technology, will permit the UMTS technology to reproduce messages with an audiovisual content at a certain speed, when it comes into force, within the telecommunications market.
On the other hand, the patent for the Spanish invention with the publication number 2,133,125 and stated as a “cordless telephone tele-door opener” is well known. This patent has a cordless telecommunication system for sound and image that includes a base and a portable that establishes communication with the external public telephony system and with the particular internal video for the door opening system on the environment of a building of dwellings. The portable is a mobile radio-electric station that permits the bell of the person calling at the porch door of the building to be heard, to be seen, to talk to him/her and to open the porch door, as well as permitting all the services of the public telephone system. The aforementioned base is a fixed radio-electric station with cover for the interior of a dwelling, that has the same functions as the portable. Although the system of this patent has advantages with reference to using the portable telephone as a cordless video door opener and as a public telephone, it also has inconveniences, such as not permitting audiovisual messages to be recorded and reproduced, not anticipating connection to a local or remote PC, not permitting the possibility of alarm or home automation functions, not considering the possibility of using it as a portable television set and not having a remote localization module.
In the previous paragraphs of this section, we briefly described devices, systems and technologies related to the invention, indicating their most relevant aspects. Let us no look at those characteristics that, in our opinion, differentiate the system that we propose from those already existing.
Electronic door opening systems conceived from their creation for performing functions such as recording audiovisual messages in the absence of the owners and their later reproduction on an interior plate, on a conventional television set, on a telephone or on a portable device are not known.
Neither are electronic door opening devices known that permit the re-recording of messages of absence as often as necessary or a change in the audible sound of the bell for helping people with hearing problems.
In the same way, electronic door opening devices are not known that can be configured and controlled entirely via a portable device that includes a small viewing screen on which the text menus for configuration can be seen and which can be remotely handled by means of a computer, telephone or similar.
Neither are automatic door opening systems known that permit the remote localization of owners and the reproduction of messages recorded via the telephone, it being possible to be helped in the actions to be performed by means of reproducing audio messages.
Neither do we know of the existence of automatic door opening systems that permit the connection of input and output devices for simulating alarm functions and making home automation functions possible by means of a serial bus and also for performing the functions of an automatic answer phone, a cordless telephone and a portable television set.
Electronic door opening systems that permit audiovisual scenes to be recorded for security purposes and which are useful in the case of police action are not known.
Finally, we are unaware of electronic door opening and message systems that are prepared for adaptation to the WAP technology, with the object of real time reproduction of the audiovisual messages recorded in the system and the viewing of scenes in the entrance hall via a liquid crystal display that is included in the most modern mobile telephones.